Red Palazzo, Venice

A landscape, coastal scene and portrait painter in oil, Henry Bishop was born in London on 27th June 1868 and studied art firstly at the Slade School, then at the Atelier Cormon in Paris followed by working with Alexander Harrison in Brittany. There was also a time spent studying in Brussels and Pittsburg in the United States.

He started his career as an artist living and working in Cornwall where he produced mainly portraits and figure subjects but it was as a result of several years spent in southern Europe, but mainly Morocco, that the style associated with him evolved. The paintings from the latter formed the basis of his inaugural one-man show which was staged at the Goupil Gallery in 1913.

He exhibited at the New England Art Club for the first time in 1915 and exhibited 30 paintings there over his career as well as 66 times at the Royal Academy from 1922 plus many others at venues such as Leicester Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy, Manchester City Art Gallery, Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Royal Scottish Academy and the Paris Salon (1890-1914). Examples of some of these works include: “The Basha’s Palace, Tetuan”, “Entry into Fez” “A Street in Carrara”, “Shakespeare’s Cliff, Dover”, “Monday Washing, Hyere”, “Bedouins outside a Town” and “Woodcutting on the Banks of the Yonne”.

He was made a full member of the Royal Academy in 1939, to the NEAC in 1929 and to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1912. In 1888, he had been one of the founder members of the St Ives Art Club.

Museums that hold examples of his work include: Tate Britain, National Portait Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal College of Physicians, London; Manchester City Art Gallery, Sheffield Museum, Rochdale Arts and Heritage Service, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, University of Hull Art Collection.